Under Lu Xun's expectant gaze, Lan Tian continued, "Of the tens of thousands of retainers outside the city, quite a few are only there to make up the numbers. With such feeble combat strength, they will not only lose their lives easily on the battlefield, but also drag down others. My core principle is to maintain elite troops. Soldiers who merely fill the ranks should go back to farming. Just look at the Trap-Breaking Army. Since one has joined the army to serve the nation, one must be worthy of the words 'professional soldier.'"
"The Trap-Breaking Army is among the finest and fiercest under heaven. I truly admire that. Prefect, you have repeatedly defeated larger forces with smaller ones—was it not because of those two words, 'elite troops'? You intend to..." Lu Xun trailed off.
"We are currently surveying the land. So much farmland has been vacated by the Sun Clan's relatives; it ought to be reclaimed as public land under the authorities. Those fields also need people to cultivate them. The weak soldiers will retire and return to the fields, farming until they are content. Their compensation will certainly follow the same precedent as before." Lan Tian smiled faintly.
Lu Xun nodded firmly. "There is no problem selecting twenty thousand usable soldiers from the fifty thousand troops outside the city. But how should this portion be handled?"
"As the saying goes, only with a state can there be a home. Though Yang Province has been pacified, powerful enemies still remain in the north. With the Sun Clan destroyed, Wei and Han divide the realm between them. The three major battlefields are the Yong-Liang Region, the Central Plains, and Huainan. Our next step will be to march into Huainan. Gan Xingba's twenty thousand naval troops alone, along with Jianye's Trap-Breaking